Orthodixie

By Fr. Gregory Horton

This is a brief account of the journey that I took with my dear wife, Khouria Cindy (Elizabeth) Horton, to the Island of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean from August 23rd to September 1st, 2004. We had already been away from home for nearly a month, having participated in an Orthodox Christian Mission trip to East Africa. Home was very far away and growing farther with each passing airline mile from Nairobi, Kenya into the southern Indian Ocean. Our four children had not seen us since July 29th and we were now beginning yet another adventure!

I had wanted to visit the Island ever since reading about it four years before in a magazine published by the Orthodox Christian Mission Center in St. Augustine, Florida. I had read that a new Orthodox Christian community had been formed by Bishop NEKTARIOS of Madagascar and that the new community was seeking a priest to serve there. So it was a dream realized for me when I discovered that we could travel to the exotic island following our service on the team in Tanzania. I wondered what surprises awaited us after having experienced the intense life of the dear people of East Africa.

We were greeted in the early morning hours at the airport by the president of the Orthodox Christian Society of Mauritius, Elena, a Russian émigré who had married a Mauritian man studying to become a doctor in the Soviet Union many years before. She was accompanied by her husband, Dr. Vasile Badry, and another gentleman, Alex, who had also married a Mauritian native and moved from his native Austria (he is Serbian Orthodox). We had arrived on “Paradise Island” and were taken directly to our new quarters…a rented house near the northwest corner of the island, just north of the capitol city, Port Louis. The airport is located at the southeast corner of the island, so this initial drive gave us a pretty good idea of how far it is across the island on the main highway that crosses it diagonally. The island is only about 50 miles by forty miles at its widest point, yet the population numbers about 1.2 million people. So, needless to say, there is some congestion, traffic and always lots of people throughout the island.

Our itinerary was a splendid surprise arranged by our Orthodox Christian hosts. It consisted of daily excursions to all of the far flung sections of the island with a different family from the Orthodox community each day. We saw everything from gorgeous beaches filled with tourists from Europe and Australia to volcanic craters at the center of the island. These were hidden in the highest mountains where one could gaze out and see great distances in all directions, beholding the sea far beyond the edge of the island…glorious! We experienced the hustle bustle of the large city of Port Louis, with its tourist attractions as well as the humble city market that stretches up and down the streets at the city center. We also drove almost the entire perimeter of the island on consecutive days, taking in a bit more territory each day. We passed through many villages with exotic French names such as Flic-en-Flac and Curepipe. The most interesting aspect of our trip was, however, (at least for me), the people and their unique culture. Bits and pieces of this were shared by our many hosts until we could see the entire picture.

The history of Mauritius is not very old because there were no people living on the island before the Europeans arrived. First came the Dutch and the Portuguese…but both left in short order. Next came the French and they remained and colonized the island. They brought slaves from Madagascar and East Africa to work as laborers on the sugar plantations and elsewhere. The slaves learned French in order to speak to their masters, but they also altered the language a bit in order to be able to speak among themselves without the French overlords understanding. This was because they had been taken from so many different tribes and places and would not have been able to communicate otherwise. This is the origin of the Creole language as spoken on Mauritius. Together with French, it is spoken by the people on the island even today.

The next to come were the British, who took control from the French and abolished slavery. They also brought the English language to Mauritius. English remains the official (but not preferred) language on the island today. When slavery was abolished, the British imported many hired servants from their Indian colony. This explains why 50% of the present population is Indian. The majority of these people practice Hinduism and Hindu shrines and temples dot the countryside everywhere. As for the rest of the population, about 30% are Roman Catholic Creoles, about 15% (and growing) practice Islam and the remaining 5% are primarily Buddhists from China. There is a small percentage of Christians who are not Roman Catholic. There is a tense balance between the various religious and ethnic groups and the government strives very hard to maintain this balance.

We next come to the peculiar caste systems on the island. First, there is a similar caste system among the Hindu population as exists in India. There are the Brahmans at the top and the untouchables at the bottom. It is amazing that the system has been transplanted almost entirely wholesale from the Indian motherland. The other type of caste system extends beyond the Indian community and was explained to us in terms of “color”. Simply stated, the lighter a person’s skin, the higher up on the social ladder they are placed. White Mauritians are the elite, both financially and politically. There is a small group of white families that controls the majority of wealth on the island. Foreigners are generally excluded from this caste system and disregarded as mere tourists, but for Mauritians, this color caste is very serious business. One is strongly encouraged to marry a lighter or similar colored person. However, there also seems to be a high level of intermarriage between races and religions. Many people that I spoke with about this consider this practice normal and desirable for Mauritian society.

The food on Mauritius is strongly influenced by Indian cuisine, although it has a local twist. North American fast food (McDonald’s, KFC, Pizza Hut, etc. is also present on the island alongside street vendors of all sorts and Islamic cuisine (very hot…it made my wife pretty ill).

Another noticeable feature of life on Mauritius is the presence of dogs absolutely everywhere. They bark all night and the residents consider this to be normal and acceptable. In fact, one night we were celebrating my wife’s birthday on the beach with several of our hosts, when all of a sudden an enormous canine fight broke out among two of their four dogs on the beach. Our host proceeded to jump up, grabbed his son’s guitar (after the young man had just played an exquisite concert of varied works with the instrument), and smashed the guitar over the most aggressive dog’s back. We were wondering if he had ever attended a Jimmy Hendrix concert! Well, I for one was pretty excited about the festivities, but Khouria Cindy was simply in shock.

Finally, Sunday arrived and it was time for the Divine Liturgy. The Orthodox Christians do not gather for services because there is no one to lead them or to sing the services. In fact, I was the first priest to ever serve in the church (Bishop NEKTARIOS had served several times but never before did a priest serve there). The church building is a beautiful Byzantine structure financed from abroad through the efforts of Bishop NEKTARIOS. The community consists of about 40-50 people of all national backgrounds, including several indigenous Mauritians. We were told that there are several hundred Orthodox Christians (mostly Russians) who would come if a permanent priest is assigned to the island. Khouria Cindy led several singers in the responses during the Liturgy. The Gospel was read in French and English and the Liturgy was celebrated in these and several other languages. The atmosphere was festive and enthusiastic. There is a sense of hope and looking forward to a bright future as the Orthodox community completes the building, matures and acquires a resident priest. After refreshments, it was time to retire and begin planning for the journey home.

I told the people of the Orthodox Association that I would be submitting a full report to Bishop NEKTARIOS upon arriving home. Little did any of us know that both the Patriarch (PETROS of Alexandria) and the Bishop (NEKTARIOS of Madagascar) that I commemorated on that Sunday in Mauritius would both leave this life in a helicopter crash a few short weeks later. The faithful are now devastated and have asked me to recommend a prayer service for them to offer in honor and memory of their beloved founding Bishop. Khouria and I are still processing the entire trip and seeking to discern how the many varied experiences will affect our lives. One cannot simply “go for a visit” to these places…the images live within us and will be part of us for many years to come.

WASHINGTON BUREAU: Terry Mattingly’s religion column for 9/29/04

Call it church-state espionage.

Unitarians and other activists on the religious left have been slipping into evangelical pews to endure altar calls, praise songs and sermons against gay marriage. The Kansas-based Mainstream Coalition has a simple reason for doing this. If preachers openly endorse President Bush, its agents can report these crimes to the IRS.

Reacting to these watchdogs on the left, the Religious Freedom Action Coalition promptly launched Big Brother Church Watch — http://www.ratoutachurch.org — to infiltrate churches that might back Sen. John Kerry. Big Brother agents will, for starters, target Unitarian Universalists, the African Methodist Episcopal Church and the predominantly gay Metropolitan Community Church.

The good news is that this strategy may increase church attendance, quipped the Rev. James L. Evans of the First Baptist Church in Auburn, Ala.

“Reports from both groups seem to indicate that the monitors will be going out two by two,” said Evans, in a satirical essay for the University of Chicago’s Martin Marty Center. “Monitoring pairs could easily become monitoring teams. We could witness the rise of monitoring communities. …

“Liturgies will most surely be altered: Monitor your neighbor as you would have your neighbor monitor you.”

That’s one point of view. Obviously, activists on both sides are pushing the legal envelope in a campaign bathed in religious disputes since day one. Both sides are, for example, paranoid about White House strategist Karl Rove’s favorite statistic — 4 million Christian conservatives failed to vote in 2000.

Lawyers on left and right have issued guides for clergy who want to know what they can and cannot do without provoking the wrath of the IRS.

“Lots of people are trying to walk the razor’s edge,” said Melissa Rogers of Wake Forest University, who helped guide the “Politics and the Pulpit” project at the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life. “They may think they’re just on the safe side of the line. But when you take such an aggressive stance, you’re sure to raise eyebrows. …

“Church leaders have to ask themselves, ‘Do we really want to be the case that proves precisely where the line is?’ ”

One thing is clear. Since 1954, the Internal Revenue Code has said that religious leaders and organizations have every right to speak out on moral and religious issues and to do so using religious language and images, she said. Where they may cross the line is connecting these doctrinal pronouncements to specific political parties and candidates. The same laws apply to non-religious 501(c) (3) groups that are tax exempt.

Pastors can preach on biblical issues such as homosexuality and abortion and urge their flocks to be politically active. Churches can lead voter-registration efforts, if they do not discriminate, and host multi-candidate forums. Pastors can personally endorse political candidates, as long as they do not do so on behalf of their churches.

What is forbidden? Days before the 1992 election, the Church at Pierce Creek in Binghamton, N.Y., ran a full-page USA Today advertisement that said, “Christians Beware: Do not put the economy ahead of the Ten Commandments.” It cited scriptures about sexual morality and noted the Democratic candidate’s support for abortion rights, gay rights and the distribution of condoms in public schools. The church also appealed for tax-exempt donations.

The punch line was blunt: “How then can we vote for Bill Clinton?”

The IRS said this attack on a specific candidate clearly constituted forbidden political activity.

Nevertheless, a major voice in debates about politics and the pulpit has infuriated the church-state legal establishment by challenging churches to test these laws.

“Although the IRS states that a pastor may not personally endorse a candidate while in the pulpit, I believe such a restriction is unconstitutional,” said Liberty Counsel President Matthew Staver, an advisor to the Rev. Jerry Falwell. “No pastor has ever been targeted by the IRS for giving a personal endorsement from the pulpit. My recommendation is that if the pastor wants to personally endorse a candidate, he should feel free to do so.”

After all, the Church at Pierce Creek is the only congregation that has been punished in any way under this IRS code, said Staver, in a set of clergy guidelines.

“This history alone should alleviate unfounded fear,” he said.

Terry Mattingly teaches at Palm Beach Atlantic University and is senior fellow for journalism at the Council for Christian Colleges & Universities. He writes this weekly column for the Scripps Howard News Service.

* * For a CARTOON illustrating this report, go here.

Although distinct from one another, faith and psychic health are not necessarily incompatible.

Is it possible to marry the disciplines of Pastoral Counseling and Psychotherapy? I believe it is, for God has dominion over all. Since I currently have a secular job at a recovery center, the struggle between the two disciplines, if you will, is ubiquitous. The following reflection speaks to this struggle, somewhat, and was originally presented to clergy. It has been edited for the purposes of this Blog and, unfortunately, has lost the footnotes.

The importance of faith is not that it leads (or fails to lead) to psychic health. Such a view would imply that there is some value higher than faith (namely, psychic health) that faith must serve.

The main difference, other than faith, is often in vocabulary. I once took a graduate level course in counseling from a local university. It was an intense but satisfying experience. When it came time to speak, however, I had to change my vocabulary. This was awkward — not impossible. The demons and diagnoses have different names. The most difficulty comes in reconciling secular and heavenly cure. It seems to me that psychotherapy is helpful in finding the symptoms of the illness, whereas Orthodox Spirituality is better able to offer a cure through its incarnational theology. By “incarnation” I refer here to this mystery in its totality — not merely as a reference to the God-Man Jesus. What I am referring to is the healing properties of the holy mysteries, the sacraments of the Church.

In Deborah van Deusen Hunsinger’s book, Theology & Pastoral Counseling, she offers the case of “Eva”. As I read this case, I was amazed at how closely it resembled the story of a parishioner. “Betty” was in her mid-40’s; married with four children. She suffered from anorexia, hyperventilation, panic and other nervous disorders. This was not known by the rest of the parish — at least not directly. Therefore, it often caused some rather sticky problems for both priest and others when Betty’s odd behavior kicked in. She would “drop the ball” on hospitality (coffee hour)and/or show up for Liturgy dressed like a homeless person. She would mix her bedeviled emotions of the moment with a perfectly smooth situation, causing gossip and havoc. It was almost as if she were possessed.

In the case of “Eva” we meet a woman who has similar demons that stem from her childhood and her relationship with her mother. Eva’s symptoms correspond to the description of dysthymic disorder:

1. insomnia or hypersomnia

2. low energy level or chronic tiredness

3. feelings of inadequacy, loss of self-esteem, or self-depracation

4. decreased effectiveness or productivity at school, work, or home

5. decreased attention, concentration, or ability to think clearly

6. social withdrawal

7. loss of interest in or enjoyment of pleasurable activities

8. irritability or excessive anger

9. inability to respond with apparent pleasure to praise or rewards

10. less active or talkative than usual; feels slowed down or restless

11. pessimistic attitudes toward the future, brooding about past events, or feeling sorry for self

12. tearfulness or crying

13. recurrent thoughts of death or suicide

As I read this — and the rest of Eva’s case — I did so with my jaw agape. This was Betty! What a find! I believed, and it was later confirmed, that Betty’s experience and Eva’s were similar in the following regard:

Like her parents, God was perceived to be disappointed in Eva’s inability to ‘pull herself up by her bootstraps’. Like them, God was understood to be sick to death of her complaints and disgusted with her sniveling self-pity. Thus God, too, became an inner attacker, not a place of refuge and hope (p.161).

During our next session of spiritual direction, I mentioned to her that I had read something that might help us to overcome some of her anxieties. I told her that it was more psychology than theology — but if she was agreeable, we’d take a look at it. After some hesitation, she agreed. I told her about Eva, her symptoms and the roots of her case. I then read her the above list of symptoms for dysthymic disorder. She shrugged and said, “Yeah, that could have been me several years ago”. I told her that “during a depressive episode, at least three symptoms need to be present” (p.155). She said that was currently true. The remainder of our session was in talking about the “roots” of her own case. It was amazing how they mirrored the case of Eva! Betty called me the next day and apologized for being dishonest. It seems that the list of 13 was right on the money. She saw herself in almost every single symptom. [However, this insight may be built into the “disease”!]

Anyway, I explained to her that this gave us a starting point for future discussions and cure. She was fearful of “psycho-babble”, so I told her we wouldn’t use that vocabulary. However, the resources that are available for diagnosis in this regard can only help us in spiritual direction. The use of such “secular” tools is particularly helpful when the demons have convinced someone that God is the enemy.

Our goal in counseling is no different than the ultimate goal for all Orthodox Christians “deification” or “divinization” (theosis). As Katherine Marie Dyckman and L. Patrick Carroll state:

As a director we are not just enabling people to reflect upon and integrate life, as a good counselor would do, but to do so in the light of who they are called to become in fidelity to the Gospel. This … is the distinct and decided difference between counseling and spiritual direction.

The word “psychotherapy” literally means “healing of the soul”.

Even as a confessor, the priest is mainly a therapist. The sacrament of confession is not simply a formal absolution, especially of the Western type, as if God were angry and demanded expiation. It is something more. It is a part of the therapeutic treatment.

The director must make it clear that while he certainly stands against the directee’s sin, he nevertheless stands with him as a person.

Thus, having come to oneself and then proceeded on to repentance and reconciliation, the next step in the process is communion. As stated earlier, the goal of Orthodox spiritual direction (therapy) is theosis. It is a life long process which involves:

1) coming to oneself

2) confession

3) communion

“Communion” basically means “common union” with God and humankind. This is impossible without first gaining self-knowledge and then ridding oneself [continually] of sins and passions through confession. Communion is never fully completed in this life — neither are the first two steps coming to oneself and repentance. Rather, this is the lifelong path that one treads toward deification, theosis. In this earthly life, we never “graduate” from therapy or spiritual direction. We just proceed from “glory to glory” toward the likeness of God.

For this reason, I believe the cure is found in the Faith. Yet pastors can find some handy tools in the sciences of the mind, behavior, and human consciousness.

I heard this rumour last week on a nationally broadcast radio program. I googled it and found no stories on the Net. The radio show, Coast-to-Coast AM, was interviewing a priest about some nuttiness or other and he made the claim that the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Alexandria was assasinated (helicopter tragedy) by Muslim terrorists because he had refused to remove his missionaries from West Africa.

Now another rumour surfaces, this time in the blogosphere:

NEWEST ON PETROS VII: According to one of my professors, who just returned from Greece, the press in Greece is saying that new evidence has been recovered about the helicopter accident that killed Petros VII,the Pope and Patriarch of Alexandria, along with others on Sept 11, 2004 (the date sets off a number of bells, no?).

The crash site has been examined and the evidence investigators expected to find is not there: the propellers were intact. Thus, the current theory is that the “accident” was indeed caused by a bomb.

As you may know, Vladimir Putin was scheduled to be on that helicopter but changed his plans so that Petros VII could travel to the Holy Mountain.

We may never know the cause of this tragedy. But if any of you find news stories with an “explanation” I’d appreciate notice.

May their memory be eternal!

I despise politics wholeheartedly: thus I am neither a Bolshevik, nor a National Socialist, nor an anti-Semite. I am a neutral Swiss and even in my own country I am uninterested in politics because I am convinced that 99% of politics are mere symptoms and anything but a cure for social evils. About 50% of politics is definitely obnoxious inasmuch as it poisons the utterly incompetent mind of the masses.

A statement by Carl Jung when visiting the United States in 1936

While reading the latest Jung biography, the above quote leapt out at me (especially in light of Huw’s recent comment ).